Hope you can swim

Imagine if you will there is an island at the corner of Lost and Nowhere. An island filled with riches beyond the imagination of mortal man. An island where few have journeyed and even fewer have returned . Grab your speedos and your wellies as we prepare to get wet

Welcome to Forbidden Island

Story

A long time ago on an island far far away there lived a culture so advanced they could control the very elements, they were the Archeans. The Archeans are no more, their weather controlling treasures have been left for some plucky plunderer to come and find. The Archeans however have made sure that their treasure won't be given up without a fight. The island protecting their treasure, is designed to sink when anyone tries to steal the treasure within

Game Mechanics

Action Point Allowance System

Cooperative Play, Grid Movement

Hand Management, Modular Board

Pick-up and Deliver

Set Collection

Variable Player Powers

Number of Players

2-4

Play Time

Up to 60 mins. It's quite quick to play on the grand scheme of things

Down Time

Deciding how best to spend your actions on your turn

How Does It Play

It's incredibly easy to pick up and play. It set's up in less than 5 mins and doesn't require a lot of space, just be prepared for a bit of shuffling.

The game itself is played over a series of rounds. Each round a player will decide what actions they want to take from:

Moving: Moving from one tile to another

Shoring Up: Bailing out all the water from location to prevent sinking

Sharing Cards: A player may give one treasure card to another player on the same space, helping that player get the relevant treasure

Capture a Treasure: If you have four of one treasure type you can go to a specific tile on the board and claim that treasure. There are two specific tiles per treasure in the game

Each character in the game has their own abilities

Engineer: Can shore up to two tiles per action (only tiles in a horizontal or vertical direction)

Pilot: Can move to any space on the board once per action

Diver: Can move over space where there are no tiles, i.e. tiles that have sunk

Navigator: Can move other player up to 2 adjacent tiles away

Explorer: Can move diagonally, can also shore up tiles diagonally

Messenger: Can give treasure cards to players on different spaces

After each player has taken their 3 actions, they draw 2 treasure cards and discard any cards if they exceed the hand limit of 5 cards, then the player draws the number of location cards as indicated by the Waters Rise meter.

Players win the game by collecting the four treasures and escaping the island from the tile Fools Landing (Helicopter Lift card needed)

Players lose the game when any of the following happens:-

1. Waters Rise to beyond Level 5, (marked by a Skull and Crossbones)

2. A player is on a tile that sinks with no adjacent tile to swim to

3. If both Temples, Gardens, Palaces, or Caves sink

4. If Fools Landing sinks

The game contains two forms of back up in the treasure deck, Sandbags and Airlift. Sandbags lets you instantly shore up any location and Helicopter Lift lets you move all players on one tile to another

Game Components

Board - The board is a modular board made up of square tiles. There are 8 treasure specific tiles, 2 per treasure.

Character Components - There are 6 cards for players to choose from, detailing the actions a player may take as well as the unique abilities of the character. The characters are represented by wooden pieces on the board

Card Library - There are two decks of cards, one for treasure and one for locations

Waters Rise Meter - This is the tracker for the game. Each time you draw a Waters Rise card the level rises slowly. Each level indicates how many cards you draw at the end of your turn

Theme

The theme of this cooperative game is a treasure hunting race against time. The island is unforgiving and will do anything to prevent treasure hunters from stealing the secrets within

Replay Value

That depends on your perspective. The games are relatively short, usually within an hour. In my opinion it has a lot because it's simple to play, if you've played Pandemic you'll have no trouble playing this game as the mechanics are very similar. The board will change every game as you shuffle up the stack each time. It's all a matter of opinion

Favourite Part

It's quick to learn and easy to play

Least Favourite Part

The Waters Rise meter does not stand on it's own and requires propping up

Expansions

No expansions but there are sequels/spin offs. You have Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky. I'm waiting on the release of Forbidden City and Forbidden Planet

The Bottom Line

This is a good game, it doesn't go down well with others who prefer Forbidden Desert to Forbidden Island but it comes down to your own personal opinion. If you want to get into Coop gaming then this is a good starter for ten. If you want to play a game with people who either don't play board games this is a good game to break the ice.

10/10 Inches of Water

Game Designers: Matt Leacock

Game Artists: C. B. Canga

Publishers: Gamewright